The meaning and significance of ‘community’ in purpose-built 1960’s coal mining towns such as Blackwater in Central Queensland has been an inherent threat to the ongoing sustainability of the townships, particularly since the introduction of ‘fly-in-fly-out’ (or long distance commuting) work regimes during the 1980’s. Operating under two separate and often conflicting paradigms, these towns function in an environment of perceived seclusion in which business-oriented operations, industrial and organisational priorities often take precedence over social issues. Faced with multiple internal and external pressures particularly at the onset of another peak boom period in mining activity throughout the region, the residents of Blackwater have turned to the idea of community as a boundary-expressing symbol, one which acts to differentiate and validate the permanence of the town in the face of a changing industrial setting. In short, residency within the township and the concomitant advocacy of the idea of community allows the people of Blackwater to exercise a degree of agency in their lives and will give them a ‘sense of identity, authorisation, control, and effectiveness in the world’.